Head to Head Review: Samsara (NYSE:IOT) & BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL)

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) and Samsara (NYSE:IOT) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

BlackLine has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Samsara has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its stock price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BlackLine and Samsara”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BlackLine	$700.43 million	2.46	$24.17 million	$0.43	68.28
Samsara	$1.62 billion	12.96	-$9.12 million	$0.10	360.03

BlackLine has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Samsara. BlackLine is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Samsara, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

95.1% of BlackLine shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of Samsara shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.1% of BlackLine shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 35.1% of Samsara shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares BlackLine and Samsara’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BlackLine	3.71%	18.86%	3.88%
Samsara	3.32%	2.00%	1.12%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for BlackLine and Samsara, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BlackLine	2	8	5	0	2.20
Samsara	1	4	14	1	2.75

BlackLine currently has a consensus target price of $41.83, indicating a potential upside of 42.48%. Samsara has a consensus target price of $45.35, indicating a potential upside of 25.97%. Given BlackLine’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe BlackLine is more favorable than Samsara.

Summary

Samsara beats BlackLine on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc. operates a cloud-based software platform which is designed to transform accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes. Its scalable platform supports critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance. The company was founded by Therese Tucker in May 2001 and is headquartered in Woodland Hills, CA.

About Samsara

Samsara Inc. provides solutions that connects physical operations data to its connected operations cloud in the United States and internationally. The company's Connected Operations Cloud includes Data Platform, which ingests, aggregates, and enriches data from its IoT devices and has embedded capabilities for AI, workflows and analytics, alerts, API connections, and data security and privacy. Its applications include video-based safety that enables customers to build a safety program and protect their teams with AI-enabled video; vehicle telematics which provides visibility into real-time vehicle location and diagnostics with GPS tracking, routing and dispatch, fuel efficiency management, electric vehicle usage and charge planning, preventative maintenance, and insights to manage fuel and energy costs; and mobile apps and workflows that improves productivity for frontline workers and enables regulatory compliance for workers to see upcoming jobs, capture electronic documents, perform maintenance inspections, maintain compliance logs, and message with back-office administration. The company also provides equipment monitoring which offers visibility and management of unpowered and powered assets, ranging from generators and compressors to heavy construction equipment and trailers to improve operating efficiency, prevent unplanned downtime, and avoid critical safety and compliance issues; and site visibility that provides remote visibility into sites to improve onsite security, safety, and incident response times. It serves transportation, wholesale and retail trade, construction, field services, logistics, utilities and energy, healthcare and education, manufacturing, food and beverage, and other industries, as well as government. Samsara Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.